


Be calm, be cool. Baby steps

by spinningthreads



Category: S.C.I.谜案集 | S.C.I. Mystery (TV)
Genre: Autistic Character, Episode Tag, M/M, idk i haven't written for them before so maybe?, potentially way ooc?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 17:05:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17708255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinningthreads/pseuds/spinningthreads
Summary: Tag to episode 19, based off how upset Bai Chi looked about certain revelations.





	Be calm, be cool. Baby steps

**Author's Note:**

> Bai Chi is offhandedly referred to as autistic in his earliest appearances - not in the most respectful way either - so that's what I'm going with. However, I am neurotypical so if I've fucked up with anything _please_ let me know so I can fix it.

Not good. This was definitely not good. Zhao Zhen watched Bai Chi in concern, wondering what the hell had happened and debating what the best course of action would be. This wasn't a shutdown, Bai Chi was responsive enough if engaged, but he was... distant, in a way he wasn't usually. Staring at the wall and ignoring - well, not ignoring, more like not noticing - Lisbon's attempts at getting scritches, all hunched up on himself on the couch as the cup of tea in front of him went cold and undrunk, the only movement a slow tapping of a finger against his knee.

Was this a time when touch would be welcome, or was Bai Chi more likely to flinch away from contact? Difficult to know. _Start small,_ he decided. It was a new development, that Bai Chi would come here for... comfort? Company? Not that it mattered, really, but if Bai Chi felt he could come to Zhao Zhen for those things, then that was something he didn't want to fuck up. He settled for sitting down next to Bai Chi with his own drink, careful to keep a little bit of distance between them; close but not too close, just in case.

"Want to talk about it?"

"Hm?" Bai Chi blinked and turned to look at him, confusion written on his face. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"Do you want to talk about it?" Zhao Zhen repeated, taking a sip of his own now mostly cold tea and trying not to pull a face at the taste as he put the cup down.

Bai Chi flinched, hunching in on himself more. "No."

Of course not. Fine. Regroup. "Then don't ignore my dog, she's been trying to get pets off you for a while now."

Bai Chi blinked again and looked down at where Lisbon was sitting, thumping her tail and giving him the saddest of sad eyes. "Oh. Sorry Lisbon," he said, opening up again to reach down and scratch behind her ears. "I wasn't doing it on purpose." Lisbon sighed happily at the scritches and a faint smile appeared on Bai Chi's face as his fingers moved from her ears and down the back of her neck. _Good dog,_ Zhao Zhen thought in relief. _Good job._ Bai Chi was relaxing slowly, the tension easing the more he focused on Lisbon and made a fuss of her.

This had to be about the case his team had just wrapped up. Not spontaneous human combustion after all, but Uncle Bao hadn't been any more forthcoming than that when they'd discussed it earlier. It had to have been messy on a personal level as well as a physical one for it to have this kind of effect, but this didn't seem like something that could be fixed by reminding Bai Chi that he couldn't save everyone.

"Is Bai Yutong recovering?" he asked neutrally and Bai Chi nodded absently.

"He'll be fine. He thinks Feng Jie didn't really want him dead."

"Ah." 

Right. Because you shot people you didn't really want dead. Naturally. But Bai Chi wasn't looking particularly distressed over his cousin being shot, so that wasn't the issue here. Zhao Zhen's eyes narrowed as he thought his way around the problem. Related to the case but not his cousin and none of the other people on the team had been hurt as far as he knew. So maybe this wasn't personal after all. But then what? Bai Chi had been curious about spontaneous human combustion as a phenomenon, wary about his uncle's possible involvement, unnerved by the apparent supernatural aspect of the case... none of that seemed likely to result in this melancholy now that the case was over, even taken all together. There was something he was missing.

"Why do people do terrible things?"

It was a quiet question, and Zhao Zhen wasn't sure he was supposed to have heard it. "Because sometimes they're terrible people," he said anyway. Then, as this wasn't the most helpful response, he tried again. "Or they've been pushed into a corner." Which one was Feng Jie? The terrible person or the one backed into a corner?

"The people who died," Bai Chi said, not looking up from Lisbon even though his fingers paused in their ministrations, curling into her fur, "they accidentally killed others."

"Okay," he said slowly, tilting his body closer as he waited for the rest. 

"Feng Jie's girlfriend was one of them."

Ah. Backed into a corner, then.

"But... Gan Liyuan and the others..." Bai Chi's voice trailed off. "It was an accident, they didn't have to do what they did with them afterwards."

Zhao Zhen's eyebrows shot up. This was getting interesting. More importantly, though, they were making progress on the communication front. "What did they do?"

Prurient curiosity died, however, as the story unfolded. Taking the mummified bodies of people you'd killed, accidentally or not, and turning them into a con job to profit off... the idea turned his stomach. Trickery and deception were part of his job discription as a magician and Bai Chi could be argued to have a point when he'd called magic a con, he supposed. But magic didn't hurt anyone, it was entertainment, and while part of him could appreciate the skill and dedication involved in this con job on a professional level, mostly he just felt ill. No wonder Bai Chi had looked so drawn and closed in on himself. Those people, they definitely fell under the 'some people are just terrible people' category.

Carefully he lifted the arm nearest Bai Chi and rested it around his shoulders, preparing himself to be shaken off and was thus pleasantly surprised when Bai Chi relaxed into the touch instead. It was incredibly tempting to place a kiss against his hair or his temple for comfort, but they weren't there yet, nor anywhere close. Still, he couldn't surpress the flash of victory he felt at Bai Chi's leaning into him and it took effort not to grin his head off at the acceptance. 

_Be calm,_ he reminded himself. _Don't make it a big deal._ He might not have his uncle's skill with psychology, or Dr Zhan's, but he knew that drawing attention to it would have the opposite effect of making Bai Chi withdraw again and that was the last thing he wanted. _Be calm._ Bai Chi would move away sooner or later, and probably be flustered and adorable with it, but if Zhao Zhen wanted this to be a common thing then best to treat it as a common thing right from the start, not something worth remarking on, just a thing they did, not something that would trip Bai Chi's mind into panic over things being _different_.

Baby steps.


End file.
